074 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Disease of the Apple-tree caused by Alcoholic Fermentation.* — 

 M. Van Tiegliem calls attention to the conclusion resulting from 

 M. Miiutz's observations, that alcoholic fermentation is always the 

 result of a single condition, viz. when a living cell is asphyxiated or 

 deprived of oxygen in the presence of sugar. He finds precisely the 

 same conditions occurring in nature in a disease of the roots of the 

 apple-tree observed by M. Des Cloizeaux in Normandy. The roots, 

 which were very old, exhaled a strong alcoholic odour. On examina- 

 tion it was found that neither the fibrovascular bundles nor the 

 vessels exhibited any deterioration, the mischief being confined to the 

 cells of the medullary rays and of the woody parenchyma. In these 

 the ordinary contents had been entirely replaced by brown globules, 

 alcohol being formed abundantly in these cells, and spreading through 

 the tissues. No trace of microphytes of any kind was observed. The 

 alcohol had evidently taken the place of ordinary sugar and starch ; 

 and its formation appeared to be due to a want of oxygen in the soil. 

 The season had been remarkably rainy, and the disease was con- 

 siderably abated by draining the soil or by digging trenches round tlie 

 root. 



Saccharomyces apiculatus.f — E. C. Plansen draws attention to 

 the inquiry of Brefeld, What is the original source in nature of the 

 germs of fungi which are efficacioiis in the process of fermentation ? 

 and attempts to give an answer to this question in the case of 

 Saccharomyces apiculatus of Eeess and Pasteur. This fungus he finds 

 to be widely distributed on ripe, sweet, succulent fruits, from which 

 it is dispersed by the wind ; it occurs also on unripe fruits, but soon 

 perishes from want of nutriment. Eain and the fall of the ripe fruit 

 bring it to the ground, where it passes the winter, germinating in the 

 following summer. 



S. apiculatus does not, like S. cerevisice and other ferments, cause 

 the production of inversion, and is therefore unable to induce 

 fermentation in saccharose, such as a solution of cane-sugar. It 

 corresponds in this respect to certain Mucorini, and is a far less 

 active ferment than the other species of Saccharomyces. 



Plasmodia of Myxomycetes. — In October 1879, the Eev. H. H. 

 Higgins collected some fragments of decaying bark and wood on 

 which were growing five or six kinds of Myxomycetes. The specimens 

 were placed on a bed of wet sand under a bell-glass, for observation. 



In about three weeks, upon the fragment on which were some 

 small portions of Fuligo varians Sommf (JEthalium), was developed a 

 bed or cushion of olive-brown jelly, highly charged with granules ; 

 length about 30 mm., breadth 10 mm., depth 3 or 4 mm. The 

 zoospores had not been noticed previously to their union in a compact 

 Plasmodium. The plasmodium was repeatedly observed both as a 

 whole and in detached portions ; but it was very sluggish, and the 

 only way in which motion could be "detected was by getting a view of 

 the mass under an oblique light, when some slight changes could be 



* ' Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' xxvi. (1879) p. 326. 

 t • Htdwigia,' xix. (1880) p. 75. 



